General information

The Nuffield Trust was established as the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust in 1940 by Viscount Nuffield (William Morris), the founder of Morris Motors.

In 1998 the Trustees agreed that the official name of the Trust should more fully reflect the Trust’s purposes and, in consultation with the Charity Commission, adopted the name ‘The Nuffield Trust for Research and Policy Studies in Health Services’, retaining ‘The Nuffield Trust’ as its working name.

Our Trustees meet as a Board four times a year and consider all matters relating to governance. Their role is to set the Nuffield Trust’s overall strategic direction and to ensure this meets the charitable objectives set for the organisation. The Trustees and Senior Management Team meet twice a year to set and review the strategic themes for the Nuffield Trust’s annual work programme.

In addition, there are two committees of Board members. The Chair’s Committee meets as and when necessary and has a remit to consider matters relating to the appointment of new Trustees and Board Development; Trustee governance; and the remuneration of Senior Executives.

The Finance Committee meets four times a year and has responsibility for overseeing the financial functions of the Nuffield Trust, including recommending the Budget to the Board and appraisal of certain projects and contracts; risk management; and monitoring of the investment management processes.

Day-to-day management of the Nuffield Trust’s functions is delegated to the Chief Executive and the Senior Management Team, who operate within discretionary powers and protocols delegated by the Board of Trustees.

As well as our permanent staff, the Nuffield Trust is fortunate in being able to call on the expertise of its Senior Associates. Senior Associates are nationally-known academics, clinicians, managers and policy-makers who contribute valuable time and input to our work programme, serve on advisory panels overseeing aspects of our work, and provide expert peer review to our publishing programme. Where appropriate, they are sometimes commissioned to undertake more extensive pieces of work.

We are a charitable trust, registered with the Charity Commission as charity number 209169, and a company limited by guarantee registered in England with company number 00382452.

Our patron is Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal.

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The Nuffield Trust is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales as company number 382452. It is registered with the Charity Commission as charity number 209169.

We are funded primarily from income generated from the Nuffield Trust’s own endowment – this guarantees the independence of our research and wider activities.

The endowment was given to the Nuffield Trust in 1940 by Viscount Nuffield. At the end of the 2015/16 financial year, the capital value of this endowment was about £80 million. We use our investment income to fund in-house research, support our infrastructure, and allow us to commission external research.

The Trustees have a total return strategy for the investment assets whereby income and capital returns are treated alike. Operational funds available for charitable activities are drawn down from the capital value of the portfolio at the rate of four per cent of the capital value of the investment assets averaged over a three year period. Hence in any one year, resources expended on charitable activities may exceed incoming resources.

This income generated from the endowment therefore continues to remain the most important source of income for the Trust, and ensures we are not dependent on any other source of income to carry out our charitable purpose (see chart below).

In addition, we undertake a small number of research projects funded by other research organisations and bodies – these are primarily in the public sector and include organisations such as the Department of Health and the National Institute for Health Research Service Delivery and Organisation programme.

We also generate sponsorship income from a range of public, private and voluntary sector organisations to support our events programme (particularly our annual UK Health Policy Summit). These donations account for around five per cent of our income (see first chart above).

In deciding whether to accept funding for projects or sponsorship income, we consider whether the work is in accordance with our primary charitable purpose and whether it sits within our strategic work streams. Our ethical collaboration policy explores this in more detail.

As the chart below shows, we spend the majority of our income on our staff, infrastructure costs, and delivering our research and other projects.

The Nuffield Trust is an independent health charity. Here we clarify the links between us and other Nuffield related organisations.

The Nuffield Trust was established as the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust in 1940 by Viscount Nuffield (William Morris), the founder of Morris Motors.

In 1998 the Trustees of the Nuffield Trust agreed that our official name should more fully reflect our purposes and, in consultation with the Charity Commission, adopted the name 'The Nuffield Trust for Research and Policy Studies in Health Services', retaining 'The Nuffield Trust' as our working name.

The Nuffield Trust is independent of the other charities and other organisations bearing Lord Nuffield's name, and therefore has no direct connections with these organisations. These include:

Nuffield Health www.nuffieldhealth.com/
Nuffield Health is a health care and social enterprise charity. In May 2013, Nuffield Health launched a retail bond to support investment in health care services in the UK. For further information please visit www.nuffieldhealthbond.com or call 0871 664 9236 (open Monday to Friday 9am - 5.30pm). The Nuffield Trust has no connection with this initiative.

Nuffield Foundation www.nuffieldfoundation.org

The Nuffield Trust for the Forces of the Crown www.nuffieldtrust.org

The Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development www.leeds.ac.uk/lihs/nuffield/

Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre www.noc.nhs.uk/

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